Hanover Circuit 85

What Ever Happened to… Hanover Circuit of the Evangelical Association

Hanover Circuit within the Evangelical branch of United Methodism served the rural areas of York and Adams counties adjacent to Hanover PA from 1886 to 1928. When the appointment was created, it was named Blooming Grove circuit and consisted of three churches: Blooming Grove, Porters Siding1 and Mount Pleasant. While the conference journal supplies no additional details, the following account by A.W. Swengel,2 1886 pastor of Dillsburg Circuit, does. At the annual conference held at Millheim, Centre County, one of the battlegrounds of the founders of our beloved church, Dillsburg Circuit was divided: Blooming Grove, Mt. Pleasant and Porter’s Siding were detached from Dillsburg Circuit and called Blooming Grove Circuit. The remaining appointments: East Berlin, Bower’s, Beavertown and South Mountain (Union) were left to constitute Dillsburg Circuit. That same year Trinity Church at Pleasant Hill was deeded to the Evangelicals and added to the circuit. Over the years, four3 other congregations were begun on the circuit: Kingsdale, Hanover Grace, St. John’s and Green Springs. When the appointment was discontinued, it consisted of five churches: Blooming Grove, Porters Siding, Pleasant Hill, St. John’s and Green Springs. At the last Quarterly Conference of Hanover Circuit in 1928, members of the Blooming Grove, Porters Siding and Pleasant Hill congregations asked to have their memberships transferred to Grace Church in Hanover – which had been started as part of Hanover Circuit in 1901 and made a separate appointment in 1902. This was a union that been discussed for several years. St. John’s was attached to New Freedom Circuit, and Green Springs was attached to Hanover Grace. Surviving through splits and mergers, the circuit was part of three denominations – Evangelical Association (1886-1894), United Evangelical Church (1894-1922) and Evangelical Church (1922-1928). The history of this circuit and the stories of the various churches associated with it over the years

1 While the correct name of this community appears to be Porters Sideling, this article chooses to use the common variant Porters Siding – or, sometimes, simply Porters. 2 Amon Wilmer Swengel (1858-1945) is a brother to Evangelical preachers Edwin Swengel, John G.M. Swengel and [Bishop] Uriah F. Swengel. The 1994 book Threads of Time by Jean Swengel gives family information, including the statement that the Swengels are descended (with a corruption of the surname) from Ulrich Zwingli, leader of the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland. 3 It is unclear whether the appointment at Smith Station was ever a part of this circuit. The brick church building, which is still standing and used for storage, was erected 1872-73 as a union effort of the Reformed, Lutheran, Methodist and Evangelical denominations – with each faith appointing trustees to represent its interests in the building. Over the years, all but the Reformed dwindled away – and when the structure needed repair in 1896, the other denominations formally released their shares. The Reformed congregation, now Bethel UCC, moved to a new building about half a mile away in 1981. 86 The Chronicle 2016

provide insight into the Evangelical dynamics of the period both within our conference and across the denomination. The churches are presented in the order in which they joined Hanover Circuit.

Blooming Grove, 1886 This church building was erected in 1882 at a cost of $800 and dedicated in November of that year. Even though the congregation sided with the United Evangelicals, they managed to keep their building during the denominational split and used it continuously until merging into Hanover Grace in 1928. For several years after 1928 the structure, located at 478 Blooming Grove Road, was used as a store before being converted into a house. The small cemetery behind the church is now the back yard to the house, in which the most prominent tombstone is that for Rev. C.V.B. Aurand.4

Former Blooming Grove Evangelical Church

Porters Siding, 1886 This congregation appears to have erected its first building coincident with the creation of Hanover Circuit. This was often the case – that new buildings gave the impetus for the creation of a new circuit, and vice-versa. The local church was divided by the denominational split of 1894 and followed what proved

4 Ironically, Celestine Van Buskirk Aurand (1858-1901) began his Evangelical ministry in the Central Pennsylvania Conference, was caught up in denominational split, and wound up serving in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of the Evangelical Association 1892-1900. In 1900 he returned to the Central Pennsylvania Conference of the United Evangelical Church and was appointed to Hanover Circuit – where he died before completing his first year. Hanover Circuit 87

to be a common scenario within the Central Pennsylvania Conference. The majority of the congregation sided with the United Evangelicals and had to forfeit the building when the courts ruled that the Evangelical Association had the rights to all church property. Since the vast majority of the Central Pennsylvania Conference sided with the United Evangelicals, there were not enough congregations left for the Evangelical Association to maintain a Central Pennsylvania Conference. Those congregations remaining with the Association were made part of the East Pennsylvania Conference of the Evangelical Association. Porters Siding was placed in the Reading District and assigned to share a pastor with York and Adamsville – which were many miles distant. As the remaining membership was small and the arrangement was unsuitable, the efforts of the Evangelical Association to maintain a viable congregation were doomed from the start. The 1896 journal of East Pennsylvania Conference, page 28, reported: Whereas: Our church at Porters Siding, York County, is advertised to be sold on Saturday next, by the sheriff, on a claim of one hundred and seventy-five dollars and interest, which act we deem unadvisable, therefore Resolved: That [district superintendent] A. Rearick be instructed to give this matter his immediate attention and prevent the sale. Finally, in 1898, the Association stopped supplying Porters Siding and Adamsville5 in order to concentrate on York.6 The original Porter Siding building, which had also been known as Zion, was sold to satisfy the debt. The structure, which had been located ½ mile southwest of the village by the existing cemetery,7 was eventually dismantled. The majority of the congregation that sided with the United Evangelicals, meanwhile, had erected a new building in the village. That structure is still standing, and its cornerstone reads: Bethel United EV Church 1896. The building was sold when the congregation united with Hanover Grace in 1928 and for many years housed another congregation. At present [spring 2016] the structure is being remodeled into a home.

5 The Adamsville church building was purchased in 1898 by a member of the community who journeyed to Reading, made a successful offer of $75, and acquired the building for the purpose of organizing a United Brethren congregation. That congregation is now the Adamsville UMC. 6 The York church building and parsonage were on the east side of Queen Street, between Market and Philadelphia Streets. In 1903 the congregation moved to State and Wallace Streets and was one of the few Central Pennsylvania Conference congregations that stayed with the Evangelical Association and survived to see the 1922 re-union of the competing factions. The congregation eventually became Bethlehem UMC and worshiped at the Wallace Street location until merging into the former Ridge Avenue Methodist Church in 1970. 7 Zion Evangelical Cemetery, at the intersection of Marburg Road and Kelley Avenue, is well- maintained but is no longer an active cemetery. The earliest burial appears to have been in 1862, even though it is believed the Evangelical building there was not erected until about 1886. The cemetery is now maintained by Heidelberg Township. 88 The Chronicle 2016

Former Porters Siding Evangelical Church

Mount Pleasant, 1886 This 26x38 building was erected in 1878 and dedicated on Christmas Day of that year. It was located in Conewago Township, Adams County, just southwest of Hanover.8 This congregation was never large and the 1886 History of Adams and Cumberland County, page 233, describes the building as “the Lutheran and Union Church” – suggesting that the Evangelicals were not even the dominant group using their own building. By 1893 the future did not look bright, and the conference journal for that year, page 36, included the following resolution. WHEREAS, There is a debt of $102 resting on Mt. Pleasant church on Hanover Circuit, and WHEREAS, We have only three families belonging to that church and they live nearer to Hanover borough than Mt. Pleasant, and WHEREAS, The prospect for the future of our church is not sufficient to make any special effort, and WHEREAS, We have twelve members already living in Hanover and others are moving there, and we have heretofore lost members by not having a church there, and WHEREAS, The quarterly conference asks permission to remove the said Mt. Pleasant church into Hanover or to sell the same and after paying the debt apply the balance to

8 The area called Mount Pleasant is one mile southwest of Hanover on Frederick Street. At that point is a crossroad, with Mount Pleasant Road going north and Narrow Drive going south. Go south on Narrow Drive about 150 yards to a curve to the right. The church stood in the triangle of land formed on the left by the curve in the road and its two extensions. Hanover Circuit 89 the purchase of a lot for a church in Hanover as the Presiding Elder and Preacher in charge with quarterly conference may deem best. Therefore, RESOLVED, That their request be granted. In the end, however, the property was lost at a sheriff’s sale in 1895.9

Pleasant Hill, 1886 This congregation worshiped in the community’s band hall before erecting a church building, along what is now Tollgate Road, in 1866.10 The congregation sided with the United Evangelical Church during the denominational split but managed to keep their building. It is unclear whether they, like many other Central Pennsylvania Conference congregations, had to purchase their building from the Evangelical Association – but there was a battle over the building that went before Pennsylvania’s Superior Court in 1897. Because it gives valuable insight and commentary on both the denominational and local conflict, the text of the court’s final judgment is given in Appendix A, but a summary of the case and its appeal is presented in the following four paragraphs. Andrew Garrett11 and Adam Warner12 were elected trustees when the congregation was part of the Evangelical Association – continuing in that role when the congregation sided with the dissidents in 1891 and continued worshiping in the 1866 building. In 1894 the courts ruled the dissidents were not the legal Evangelical Association, were not the legal owners of pre-1891 church property, and had to reorganize as the United Evangelical Church. In Pleasant Hill there were so few persons sympathetic to the Evangelical Association that no real attempt was made by that denomination to supply the

9 The property was purchased by layman Frederick S. Stover (1843-1917) for an amount sufficient to pay off the debt. Stover was a member of the Blooming Grove congregation, and had been a member of its 1882 building committee. He then sold the property to adjacent landowners William and Sarah Shaffer, who sold it the Lutherans, under the care of St. Mark’s in Hanover – but it seems that no enduring Lutheran use of the building ever materialized. An extensive and well-documented paper on this building is Larry C. Bolin’s 2005 “Mt. Pleasant Church, Conewago Township” in Adams County History: vol. 11, article 4. 10 While the church was erected in 1866, the property was not officially deeded to the Evangelical Association by Oliver W. Garrett until 1886 – as it was once not uncommon for landowners to allow cemeteries, schools and church buildings on their properties without compensation or formal subdivision of the land. It may have been the formation of the Blooming Grove Circuit that motivated the formal deeding of the property to the Evangelicals, and its pre- 1886 status is not entirely certain. Garrett (1844-1922) is buried at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Hanover. In addition to maintaining a small farm at the church site, he operated a store in the village of Pleasant Hill. His exact relationship to the two-month old Oliver W. Garrett (1908- 1909) buried in the cemetery at the church site is unknown. 11 Andrew W. Garrett (1831-1900) is a brother to the Oliver Garrett who gave the land for the church. He is buried in the cemetery at the church site. 12 Adam R. Warner (1850-1930) was an area farmer. He later owned and operated a mill and was a noted rake maker. He is buried in the Dubs Cemetery near Lake Marburg, but his 16 day old son Emory (1892-1892) is buried in the cemetery at the church site. 90 The Chronicle 2016

pulpit or claim the building. But in September 1895 three persons13 declared themselves trustees of the true Evangelical Association congregation and sold the building to Henry Nace and Edward Houck – who then started to dismantle the building, sell the contents and plow over the cemetery. Garrett and Warner (plaintiffs) obtained a temporary injunction ordering Nace and Houck (defendants) to cease. A formal hearing was held in October 1895. The judge involved ruled that the injunction be made permanent,14 that the deed of Nace and Houck was not valid (because those who sold them the property were not proper trustees) and that they had to restore the property and pay for all damages – but the judge made it clear that he was not ruling on who actually owned the property. Nace and Houck appealed the decision.

Former Trinity Evangelical Church at Pleasant Hill

The appeal was argued in March 1897. This time the judge involved vacated the decision of the lower court by declaring that Garrett and Warner (because they were no longer affiliated with the Evangelical Association) did not have proper standing to be plaintiffs in the original hearing – but this judge also made it clear that he was not ruling on who actually owned the property.

13 Two of these were Jeremiah Werner (1837-1912) and his son George W. Werner (1859-1934). The Werners had been active Evangelicals first at Loganville and later on the large Dillsburg Circuit which prior to 1886 reached down into the Hanover area. They sided with the Evangelical Association, and at his death Jeremiah was a member of the York Bethlehem congregation – the only area congregation that stayed with the Association and survived until the 1922 reunion. 14 Officially, “That a perpetual injunction, order and decree be made and entered, enjoining and restraining the said defendants, their agents, servants and employees from breaking, demolishing, removing or injuring said church building or the furniture, fixtures or parts thereof or injuring, demolishing or desecrating said grave yard and burial ground or the tombs, stones, monuments and graves therein and from further trespassing upon the said property or obstructing or interfering with the use, occupation and enjoyment of the said trustees and members of said society.” Hanover Circuit 91

At any rate, the building was used by the United Evangelical (and Evangelical) congregation until the 1928 merger into Hanover Grace. Retired United Methodist pastor William Harrison Garrett, a ministerial son of Hanover Grace and a great grandson of Oliver W. Garrett, reports that his grandfather15 purchased and dismantled the Pleasant Hill church building before his 1937 birth. The church bell from Pleasant Hill is preserved in a special case in the narthex of the current Hanover Grace building.

Kingsdale, 1888 This 28x40 building was erected in 1888 and dedicated January 20, 1889. It was located in Germany Township, Adams County, south of Littlestown.16 A news article on the dedication of the structure is given in Appendix B. This congregation never really materialized and the efforts here fell victim to the struggles and re-organization necessitated by the denominational split. The property was lost at a sheriff’s sale in 189417 – with Andrew W. Garrett of Hanover Circuit listed as one of the trustees.

Hanover Grace, 1901 In 1901 Jerome H. Furner was assigned to Hanover Circuit with the specific directive from the Boundary Committee “that Hanover be taken up as an appointment” and “that the pastor be required to reside in Hanover.” The circuit parsonage in Blooming Grove was vacated, and a house was rented in the 200 block of York Street. Within a year, seven charter members were received, worship services were held in a rented space on Carlisle Street, and a lot for erecting a chapel was purchased on the corner of Spring Avenue and Locust Street. In 1902 Grace was made a station appointment, with Furner continuing as pastor and a different pastor appointed to Hanover Circuit. The Spring Avenue building, with significant additions in 1915 and 1929, served the congregation until 1974 when it relocated to Albright Drive – ironically, in the area of the old Blooming Grove structure.

St. John’s, 1904 This Manheim Township congregation was the fruit of successful revivals meetings held in 1903 by the pastor of the Hanover Circuit in nearby Runk’s

15 Harrison Moody Garrett (1878-1970) was the son of Oliver W. Garrett and the father of Rev. Garrett’s father Charles Wesley Garrett (1911-2003). And yes – Rev. Garrett affirms that his father was named for Charles Wesley and his grandfather was named for Dwight L. Moody. 16 The area called Kingsdale is 1.5 miles south of Littlestown on PA 194, where Georgetown Road intersects from the east. Go east on Georgetown Road ½ mile. The site is on the left, immediately before a large pond and directly across the road from a brick house. 17 The property was purchased for the Lutherans, as a mission of St. John’s in Littlestown – but it seems that no enduring Lutheran use of the building ever materialized. 92 The Chronicle 2016

schoolhouse. The congregation met in homes until the present building was erected in 1904. Beginning in 1909 and continuing at least into the 1920’s, the United Evangelical Church operated Hoke’s Grove Camp Meeting just west of, and within sight of, the church. The camp meeting grounds had cottages, an auditorium, a dining hall, etc. The congregation was never large, and its geographical isolation from other Evangelical congregations made for the following interesting post-1928 charge affiliations. 1928-32 New Freedom 1932-35 Wellsville 1935-39 short-lived reconstituted Hanover Circuit18 1939-95 Glen Rock 1995 closed The property was finally sold to the cemetery association in 2014, and the building is still standing.

Green Springs, 1911 This congregation began in April 1911 as an outreach of Hanover Grace. A meeting was held in the Green Springs school house, and seven charter members were enrolled. In May, a Sunday School was organized with 40 pupils, meeting every Sunday at 9:30 am. That same month a lot was purchased on which to erect a church building. The structure was completed that summer and the 30x40 frame building was dedicated Sunday, October 29, 1911. With the 1894 court decisions regarding church ownership still fresh in people’s minds, a constitution was drawn up regarding affiliation with the United Evangelical Church and a procedure for disaffiliation. As Green Springs is a relatively isolated community, placement of the Green Springs congregation was always a bit of a challenge. Following discontinuation of Hanover Circuit in 1928, Green Springs remained with Hanover Grace as a two-point charge until it was placed with Barts (former United Brethren) in 1970 and with New Oxford Emory (former Methodist) in 1974. In 2001, the congregation merged into New Oxford Emory and the building is now a private home.

18 This three-point circuit included St. John’s, Green Springs, and Ruhl’s. Ruhl is a community in Baltimore County MD, about 3 miles southwest of New Freedom. The Evangelical work came there from New Freedom sometime after 1910. The church had 48 members when the Evangelical connection there ceased in 1938. The building stood on the southeast corner of the Ruhl crossroads, and only traces of a foundation exist on the now overgrown lot. Hanover Circuit 93

Appendix A. Pleasant Hill The following paragraphs are taken from the 1898 PENNSYLVANIA SUPERIOR COURT REPORTS, pages 475-479. Plaintiffs: Andrew W. Garrett and Adam Warner Defendants: Henry E. Nace and Edward H. Houck [review of the case leading to the appeal] It appeared from the record and the evidence that an injunction was granted in the court below to restrain the defendants from further use of or injury to certain property claimed by the plaintiffs, as trustees of Trinity Evangelical Church. Plaintiffs claim title as trustees of "Trinity Evangelical Church" under a deed from Oliver Garrett dated April 26, 1886, conveying the property to them, their successors and assigns "in trust to be kept, used and maintained as a place of divine worship by the ministry and membership of the Evangelical Association of North America, with power to dispose of and convey the same, subject to the discipline, usage and ministerial appointments of said church or Association, as from time to time authorized and declared by the General Conference of said Association, and the annual conference in whose bounds the said premises are situate." Trinity Evangelical Church was· organized about that time, as an unincorporated congregation, under the control of the Evangelical Association of North America, and was afterwards dedicated as such. In 1891 occurred the great split in the Evangelical Association of North America. The regular general conference of the church (afterward declared legal by the courts) met at Indianapolis, Indiana. A seceding general conference also met at Philadelphia in the same year. Trinity Evangelical Church, and the Central Pennsylvania Conference, to which it belonged, both repudiated the authority of the Indianapolis conference, and joined the seceding Philadelphia conference, to which they have ever since adhered, and from which seceding Central Pennsylvania Conference this church has since 1891 received its pastors by appointment. Since 1891, therefore, Trinity Evangelical Church and all its members, both by their said act of secession, and by their subsequent expulsion by the regular authorities, have ceased to belong to the Evangelical Association of North America. The new organization to which they belong is known as "The United Evangelical Church." The Evangelical Association of North America, after the secession of the Central Pennsylvania Conference, continued, from time to time, to send preachers into territory of that conference to preserve its interests there. During this state of affairs, on the 7th of September, 1895, the defendants, Nace and Houck, bought the church property from Jeremiah Werner, George W. Werner and Andrew Hirt, who claimed to be the trustees of the church, and to have a right to sell the property, as the legal representatives of the regular church authorities of the Evangelical Association of North America. The defendants thereupon locked and fastened up the building, and a few days later, on the 12th day of September, 1895, proceeded to dismantle it, by removing its furniture and contents. They also subsequently offered the property for sale, claiming an absolute title thereto under their deed. At the hearing of the injunction proceedings, defendants contended: 94 The Chronicle 2016

(a) That as the property was not conveyed to plaintiffs in trust for the congregation which they represented, but for the use of the general "Evangelical Association of North America" by the very terms of the original deed; and· as the plaintiffs and their congregation had seceded from said association, they had thereby forfeited all right and title to the property, and therefore had no standing in court to enjoin the defendants from the use, occupation or sale of the premises. (b) That the defendants at the time of their alleged trespass and injury to the church property, had the legal title to the premises under their deed, and were in possession thereof, under said title, which could not be questioned by the plaintiffs who had neither title nor right of possession . The court below rejected the deed and the defendants' evidence of title, on the ground that the trustees who executed the deed to the defendants, Nace and Houck, had not been legally elected as trustees and that therefore they had not succeeded to the right of the Evangelical Association of North America. The court declined to pass upon the question of what title the general association had, or still has, to the property in question, but held that the congregation was in peaceable possession of the property at the time of the committing of the grievances complained of and entitled to its use, and that there­fore its trustees could maintain their bill against the defendants, who were mere trespassers without title. The injunction was granted as prayed for against the two defendants, Houck and Nace, who were ordered to restore the property removed or make compensation to plaintiffs for the same in the sum of $200. Defendants appealed.

[the appeal] NEVIN M. WANNER, WITH HIM JOHN T.V. HELLER, FOR APPELLANTS. The plaintiffs at the time of the filing of their bill were admittedly no longer members of the Evangelical Association of North America. By their secession and expulsion they had forfeited not only their membership but their offices as trustees, which thereupon became vacant. The property was originally conveyed to these plaintiffs in trust for the use of the ministers and members of the Evangelical Association of North America. But both the highest authority of the church (the general conference) and the highest authority of the state (the Supreme Court) have declared that not only individual members, but congregations, and conferences alike, forfeit their property rights, as well as their church privileges, by rebellion and secession: Krecker v. Shirey, 163 Pa. 534; Roshi's Appeal, 69 Pa. 462; Den v. Bolton, 12 N. J. L. 206; 20 Am. & Eng. Ency. of Law, 795.

HENRY O. NILES, WITH HIM GEORGE E. NEFF, FOR APPELLEES. The deed of April 26, 1886, from Oliver W. Garrett, vested the title in the congregation: McGinnis v. Watson, 41 Pa. 9; Brendle v. German Reformed Cong., 33 Pa. 415; Griffitts v. Cope, 17 Pa. 96. The policy forbidding property being held subject to the control of ecclesiastics is as old as the commonwealth of Pennsylvania: Methodist Church v. Remington, 1 Watts, 21 9. The act of 1855, P. L. 328, is only a legislative statement of what has always been the law of the state. It is a law that in all its particulars the courts will regard: St. Paul's Church, Chestnut Hill, 30 Pa. 152. Hanover Circuit 95

It is true, as ruled in Krecker v. Shirey, 163 Pa. 534, and the authorities there followed, that the right to the possession of the property of a divided congregation is in that part, though a minority, which is in harmony with the laws of the denomination with which they are affiliated. But it is not the law that the property of an absolutely united congregation can be seized by a body of foreign ecclesiastics, even though such body be declared to be the supreme authority of the denomination.

OPINION BY REEDER, J., July 23, 1877: This was a bill in equity, asking for an injunction to restrain the defendants from the further use of, or injury to, certain property claimed by the plaintiffs, as trustees of the Trinity Evangelical Church, of West Manheim township, York county. The plaintiffs claimed title as trustees of the Trinity Evangelical Church under a deed from Oliver Garrett in trust to be "kept, used and maintained as a place of divine worship by the ministry and membership of the Evangelical Association of North America, with power to dispose of and convey the same, subject to the discipline, usages and ministerial appointments of said church or association as from time to time authorized and declared by the general conference of the said association, and the annual conference in whose bounds the said premises are situate." The conveyance by the grantor to the original trustees was manifestly for the mere purpose of vesting the property in the congregation, they being at the time an unincorporated society. At the time of the filing of this bill, it is practically undisputed that the plaintiffs were no longer members of the Evangelical Association of North America. They seceded from that association and united with an association called ''The United Evangelical Church." They were subsequently expelled from the church, and were cut off from all church rights and privileges by the regular ecclesiastical authorities of the Evangelical Association of North America. Their offices as trustees have been forfeited, and were, therefore, vacant before the filing of their bill. By their secession from the church, they were no longer entitled to the control of the church property. This congregation collected among themselves the consideration which was paid to Garrett, the original grantor, as the purchase money for the property. It was subsequently provided in the deed that the church was to be subject to the discipline, usage and rules of the Evangelical Association of North America. These trustees were selected by the original association when they were members in full standing of the one ecclesiastical body, but held the empty title merely of this property for this unincorporated society. When they first seceded, and were afterwards expelled from the association who had full control of this church, it was a virtual renunciation by them of their right to exercise the power of trustees, and their control of any portion of the church property ceased. They, therefore, have no standing to come into court as plaintiffs in a bill in equity and ask for an injunction as trustees of the said congregation to enjoin anybody from doing anything which affects in any way the interests or property of the said church. The decree of the court below is, therefore, reversed and the bill dismissed at the cost of the plaintiffs. This action makes it unnecessary for us to consider the different assignments in any further detail.

96 The Chronicle 2016

Appendix B. Kingsdale The following article is taken from THE EVANGELICAL, weekly periodical of the United Evangelical denomination, 1889 volume, page 55.

CHURCH DEDICATION, Central Pa. Conf. – The new church erected during the past year at Kingsdale, Adams County, Pa., under the leadership of Bro. L.E. Crumbling, pastor of Hanover Circuit, was dedicated Jan. 20. Kingsdale is a growing railroad town. Having no church and being desirous to have one, the people, as represented by a prominent business man of the place, sent to Bro. Crumbling the Macedonia call: “Come over and help us.” The result is they have now a neat frame building, which it was their privilege to dedicate as Emanuel’s Evangelical church. The church was planned, built and dedicated on a good financial basis. Enough was secured on subscription to warrant the undertaking before the work of building was commenced. Their first attempts at both corner-stone laying and dedication were rained out, yet on their second day appointed for corner-stone laying they succeeded in further swelling their subscription list, and on dedication day, although the weather was again very unfavorable, we secured a considerably larger sum than was expected, even on a fair day. Though we had no membership in Kingsdale, yet a precious revival is now in progress in the new church, and we have every reason to expect great things for this new work. I.C. YEAKEL

Former Green Springs Evangelical Church erected 1911 – discontinued 2001 now a private residence (see page 92)